Destination: The One and Only Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome

I perked up last October when Audrey said she was headed to Rhinebeck, N.Y. Rhinebeck! That’s the only place I know of where World War I-vintage airplanes as well as airplanes from the Pioneer and the Lindbergh eras are flown during summer weekends. When I learned that the last show of the year at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (ORA) was taking place on the same weekend that Audrey was going to Rhinebeck, I joined her. It was our first Hudson River Valley adventure.

The historic village of Rhinebeck is located 90 nm north of New York City’s Times Square and is just a mile inland from the eastern shore of the Hudson River. After arriving and settling in on Friday, I called ORA and been told that the air was bad—too many breezes—to fly on Saturday, so I wisely chose to accompany my wife instead. I crossed my fingers for good air on Sunday.